


Honeysuckle

by Surefall



Series: Home (Is Where the Heart Is) [3]
Category: Cable and Deadpool, Deadpool (Comics), Deadpool - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Immortality, M/M, Raising children, Superfamily, Time Travel, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-07-11 12:11:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7050457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Surefall/pseuds/Surefall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wade will live forever.  Nate has a <em>use</em> for that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Promises

**Author's Note:**

> This is entirely separate from _Holly & Marigold_ and _Agrimony_.

"Hey, Nate."

"Hmmm."

"Don't go where I can't follow."

"Like the future?" Nathan lifted an eyebrow, "You know I can't prevent that."

"Oh, please. Try to catch up with me, old man. I'm already going to be _there_. Pick up the phone or something and give me a call. Or I'll have to lojack your arm. I _should_ lojack your arm," Wade paused thoughtfully, staring at the techno-organic mesh with an intensity that made Nathan twitch.

"That isn't going to be necessary," Nathan frowned, "You don't need to find me when I can find you."

"Yeah? How are you going to do that? _When_ are you going to do that? _Are_ you going to do that? Honestly, Nate, it's hard enough keeping tabs on you when you're not hopping around the time stream. You can't expect future me to anticipate your every time jump." 

Nathan's brow furrowed in confusion, "You won't live forever, Wade ... you'll always be in this span of time and you're not known for your low profile. When I want you, you're very easy to find." Wade stared at Nathan for a long moment, as if he was completely stupid, which was always annoying when it was coming from Wade. "What?"

"Yes, I will."

"You will what?"

"I will live forever," Wade said, far too calm, staring right into Nathan's eyes.

"No one lives forever," Nathan returned, but the serious look in Wade's eyes made an uneasy feeling curl in his stomach, "Logan doesn't even live forever."

"I will," Wade replied, still far too calm, "and hey, there's like evidence to support it and everything. I don't need to eat. Or drink. Or sleep. Or breathe. I can't be killed. And god, Nate, I have _tried_. I'm immune to the vacuum of space. Your techno-virus tried to _eat_ me when I was nothing but fucking goo and all I did was eat your fucking techno virus like it was a tasty treat. What omega level telekinesis can't even manage, my healing did in _minutes_. And if that's not good enough for you, I have it on the authority that I'm never going to die."

It was strangely hard to breathe. Nathan caught Wade by the shoulders, "I have never seen you in the future, Wade."

"Were you looking for me?" Wade asked, intense and almost hopeful.

Nathan winced slightly, "Well, no, but ... "

"Then you don't really know _anything_ ," Wade snorted.

"I think I would have heard about someone who doesn't die. That's the sort of thing we heard about."

"I doubt it. Nobody believes I'm really unkillable until they've tried killing me ... and these are people in our circle, Nate, people who _should_ know."

Nathan had a horrible feeling that the reason they had not heard about Wade was because Apocalypse had him, trapped and contained, like a bug in amber to keep him neatly out of the way ... if he lived. Nathan hoped he _didn't_ live that long. "Wade ... what's your authority?"

"Oh. Death."

"What?"

"You know, _Death_. That's my girl, Nate. She's kind of demanding, but she's already got Vanessa and one day she'll have you, so I don't know what _she's_ complaining about ... " Wade trailed off into an annoyed mutter before brightening, "When it's your time, you're gonna have to say hi and tell her I said to take good care of you, you know? It is super peaceful there and Death is a babe, man, you don't even _know_. Dead people get all the good things."

Death. Nathan looked into Wade's pale eyes and felt sick. _Death_. It wasn't just something Wade talked about, was it? Not just some bit of nonsense that floated through his head when the cancer was thicker, clinging to his memories when he was healthier. It wasn't a dream or a metaphor or an elaborate fantasy or a reference. Wade had talked to _Death_. "When you're dead ... you talk to Death."

"Well, duh. What did you think I did? Sleep or something? Yeesh. Okay, so sometimes we just make out -- stop looking at me like that, she's a bony honey -- it's like thirty second speed dating. You'll see. It is super peaceful there, like whoa, but I can't exactly _stay_ , now can I? She makes that face at me too. She's really going to like you, Nate, I know it."

Nathan would die and Wade would live forever. Wade wasn't just planning for Nathan to time jump, he was planning out how to ease his transition into death with _Death_ itself. He lunged forward and kissed him, _hard_ , "I don't care if she likes me," he breathed between kisses, "as long as she lets me see you."

Wade whimpered, clutching at him tightly, desperately tightly and Nathan was painfully aware how long he had been blind, not realizing that Wade clung so tightly less because he feared abandonment and more because he knew that he had so _little_ time. A blink of an eye for Wade and Nathan would be gone ... with only his time jumping to the future to look forward to, until those too were gone.

Until they were all gone.

It explained far too much. The lack of care. The disinterest in the lives of others. The ease with killing. Wade cared only because Nathan cared, not for its own sake. Nathan didn't care about the lives of flowers, either, or insects. He might not go out of his way to harm them, but he didn't agonize when they were trod under foot. _Dead people get all the good things._ And that was the whole of the human race to Wade ... to whom everyone's life was like a flower. Temporary. Care too much and all you'll do is _hurt_.

Like he cared too much about Nathan.

When next he pulled free from Wade, breathless and sweaty and sated, he said, "You know what this means, right?"

Wade gave him an incomprehensible mumble, but since he could carry out his own narration without needing air ... "It means that fuck, you have stamina for an old man? Because Primus, Nate, gimme like, five, and then like take me, you techno organic devourer of virgins, huh, devour," his whole body gave a convulsive flinch, "not that kind of techno organic devouring, those fucking piranhas, but like with the tentacles and the grabby, you know what I mean."

"I know what you mean," He sprawled out beside Wade, dragging him in close and tucking him against his side so he could use him as a warm, complaining pillow, "It means I expect you to make yourself useful when I'm traveling through time. I'll be going right to you, Wade, so you'll have to be ready to take me."

"Oh baby, I can take you any time, any place, my body is always ready ... hey, what do you mean useful? I'm not your conveniently placed lackey! Don't think you can goosestep me into your future super soldier Apocalypse time quest like a white haired Hitler. I have rights!" There was the protest. Nathan hummed as he laid his cheek against the top of Wade's head and ignored the finger poking him in the side, "This isn't pro bono work! This is a paying business and I demand recompense!"

"Too late now," Nathan murmured, feeling rather smug at having restored Wade's good mood, "I'll make sure you're adequately compensated -- "

"By which you mean ... "

" -- by which I mean sexual favors -- "

"I do so love to be paid in sexual favors. Even if they don't buy bullets."

" -- but I expect your full support. Take care of me appropriately, sempai."

Wade laughed, snuggling in close, "So you _were_ paying attention that whole time! Next you'll be telling me to -- "

"Take responsibility."

Wade giggled like a loon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honeysuckle - Bonds of love, Generous and Devoted Affection
> 
> source: http://www.languageofflowers.com/flowermeaning.htm
> 
> I stared too long at the meaning of honeysuckle. The darkness stared back at me. aksfhaksdhfkjd


	2. And Keeping Them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two paths diverged in a wood ... and this was the brighter one.

At the time, Nathan indulged Wade's relentless barrage of popular entertainment as a means to an end. The end being a happy partner who allowed him to work in peace, while the means usually included such highlights as twenty consecutive minutes of silence and all the cuddling a man could want. Nathan had no use for it for it's own sake.

Jumping forward in time with Hope, increasingly isolated, had changed Nathan's mind. Now all those hours spent curled with Wade on the couch bore unexpected fruit. These were stories he could tell Hope from a world she had belonged to. Forgotten to time, they were an endless source of coded messages in the dance of verification Wade put him through every time they met. These were moments they had shared, things that only they now knew, and Nathan couldn't fault Wade his paranoia when their enemies were always closing in. 

Nathan was relying on Wade more than he wanted to admit to. While Nathan had been a parent once before, traveling through time with a small child was an enterprise not entered into lightly. To have help always waiting had proved to be invaluable. Food, water, shelter, equipment, defenses, _information_ ... all those things Wade arranged to greater and lesser degrees ... and just as often, he was the swords guarding their retreat when Nathan and Hope were forced to skip forward again. 

"Will Wade be there?" Hope asked, clutching his hand tightly as she looked up at him with worried eyes, pulling him from his own worried thoughts.

"He's always there," Nathan told her calmly, "He just might not be close enough to hear us." The closest safe point to Wade could be fairly far away from him. Originally, he had jumped right to Wade, but a memorable materialization into the middle of a midair dogfight had made Nathan choose his parameters more carefully. 

This was the second time they had jumped and Wade hadn't been waiting for them. 

"But if he's not with us then he's not there."

"He'll be there," seeing that this time the assurance was not enough to satisfy her, Nathan added, "And if he's not there, we'll go rescue him." This was enough to ease Hope's mind even if it wasn't enough to ease Nathan's. He was ill equipped to manage a rescue.

They didn't dare stay. Nathan had scouted the area, but it was dead and empty. A desert that might be devoid of enemies, but it was also devoid of food and water. It worried Nathan that this was the closest safe point to Wade that the time distortion matrix could find. They had spent the night, the quiet wearing on every one of Nathan's nerves, and in the morning they jumped forward again.

This place was just as dead at first glance. And old city, broken walls thrusting to the sky, silent except for the wind.

Tension knotted Nathan's shoulders and he kept his shields thin in an effort to sense trouble before it arrived. After a look around, Hope looked up and he nodded to her. She stuck two fingers to her lips and whistled as loud as five year old lungs could whistle.

It echoed oddly in the wasteland, and silence answered it for long moments. Nathan listened carefully, dropping his shields entirely to reach out, brushing past Hope's mind, seeking the wind. If Wade could hear them, he would -- "Where are you hiding, little girl?" a croon drifted back on the breeze.

Cold steel touched Nathan's throat before his mind found Wade. Nathan held still, feeling the shape of the mind behind him. Cold winds and sunlight, as punishing as the real wind and the real sun. Nathan relaxed, nearly leaning into the blade, eyes fluttering shut as he brushed their minds together. "If the Alliance wanted to reason, they shouldn't have sent an assassin."

The blade didn't waver, but Nathan could hear the grin in Wade's voice, "Every minute you keep River Tam from me, more people will die. This is your fault."

"I don't murder children," Nathan responded, opening his eyes to smile at Hope. Hope smiled back, her own tension relaxing at the assurance that this was Wade, rather than a stranger pretending to be Wade. 

"It's worse than you know." Wade said, sounding almost cheerful now.

"It usually is," Nathan finished, shoulders easing even before the blade flicked away to be sheathed.

The moment the sword was put away, Hope threw herself at Wade. "Wade! You're here!"

Nathan turned in time to see Wade pick her up and spin her around with a laugh, "Where else would I be, my favorite girl?" Wade hugged her tightly before settling her on his hip.

"Lost," she informed him, "I thought you were lost."

Wade looked up at Nathan as he stepped in, "You weren't there the last two times we jumped." He reached out to cup the back of Wade's head to pull him into a kiss, a soft lingering greeting.

Remembrance flashed through Wade's eyes as he returned the kiss with fervor, before tucking both himself and Hope into the broad circle of Nathan's arm, "Oh. That. I had an extended stay vacation. Got caught, got fed, got shown their lovely prisons. It was fun except for the parts where I missed you." The carefully constructed _[Later]_ brushed across Nathan's awareness and Nathan nodded.

Wade leaned against Nathan, head tilting to rest on his shoulder, free arm sliding around his waist to tuck into his belt. Pressed between them, Hope followed his example, leaning her own head against Nathan's chest, "Nate let me skip my lessons to go hunting with him," she confided, "I caught a lizard! It was this long!" She waved her hand.

"It was that long," Nathan agreed as he ran his hand down the curve of Wade's back, pleased to feel only muscle beneath his hand instead of the shadow of bones. It was impossible to starve Wade, but his ribs started showing when he didn't eat. He pressed a kiss to the top of Wade's head and then to the top of Hope's, so she wouldn't feel left out.

"Was it nice and fat for eating?" Wade asked, interested. Too much starvation had made food Wade's primary interest, easily trumping lesser interests like sex and violence. 

"No way, it was stripy and poisonous. Bleagh!" Hope stuck out her tongue as she pulled a face.

"Sounds like it deserved to be made into boots."

"That's what I said!" Hope grinned, "but Nate didn't want to cure it. So I just let it go again."

"It would have taken too long." Two heads tipped back to give him woeful, admonishing eyes for depriving them of lizard boots. "And there was only enough lizard for one boot," Nathan added with great dignity.

Wade looked back at Hope, "A lizard purse then. The stripes would make it classy."

"Purse?" Hope asked, nose scrunching in confusion.

"A bag with a strap," Wade clarified, "for woman. Men don't wear purses."

Hope looked at Nathan, who was the owner of a bag, for verification. Nathan smiled, amused, "A bag for women is a purse. There isn't a term for the male version."

"Not unless you consider murse a word, which I don't, because damn does it sound like nurse, which is not a term I ever want to see associated with men, no matter how manly and well developed we are in the pectoral region. I'm just sayin'."

"Nurse?"

Nathan gave Wade an exasperated look for bringing that into a conversation with a five year old, but Wade only winked at him, "A homonym!"

"Ugh, is this a lesson?" Hope complained, "Homy ... holy ... _homonym_ sounds like lessons."

"Which you haven't been having, I hear," Wade smirked, "Nate's been lying down on the job while I was away."

"We were busy with things more important than lessons," Nathan murmured, hugging Wade tighter. "I missed you when you were gone, Wade." 

"I didn't," Hope grumbled, but she squirmed a little closer to them both, like they might disappear.

"Tsundere like a cactus, our girl," Wade tilted his head back to grin at Nathan, only to grin even more when Nathan took it as an invitation to kiss him.

Nathan just smirked, "She got that from you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything I write turns to fluff. 
> 
> Wade and Nate's ritual of meeting is composed entirely of quotes from the movie _Serenity_. So the credit goes to them for that.


	3. Sentiment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two thousand years has shifted the balance of power sharply in Wade's direction. Nate still manages to hold his own.

The broken city was well behind them and they were deep into the forest that had encroached on it before Wade stopped for the night. 

Hope slept soundly by the fire, bundled snugly in her bedroll, worn out from the walk and slinging small game. Nathan lightly touched her sleeping mind -- which was was busily sorting out Wade's enthusiastic lessons on edible roots -- and guided it gently into a deeper and sounder rest. The whimsical pictures of Hope and the roots playing hopscotch amused him, bringing a smile to his lips. He stretched, pulling the tension out of his muscles, glad that the worries that had previously plagued her dreams when the two of them had been alone were eased by Wade's return.

This was Nathan's time to meditate, when Hope had just fallen asleep and Wade was prowling around on perimeter patrol. It was a time of safe silence, when he could put aside worry and fear, when he could center himself and strengthen his shields, renewing his connection with the patterns of the world. Nathan folded his legs, leaning back against the tree behind him as he settled into the comfort of his meditation pose and breathed deeply, letting his senses unfurl. 

Askani mediation was a practice of patterns, on knowing the framework upon which all things were built. It started with a single deceptively simple truth: At the heart of everything was fire. In the smallest of all patterns, at the plane where atoms themselves formed, their internal bonds were forged of fire. Rend the bond and it gave forth an inferno, a punch of energy all out of proportion to its size. This was the heart, the beginning of all things.

Then came the branching paths of simple molecules, then the spiraling chains of proteins and sugars, then the warm beating hearts of cells. Cells flowed together like the atoms they were made of, stacking into patterns that built the structure of greater lives. This was the warm blood inside his veins, amorphous and organic, and the steady, threading heat of the sleeping techno virus, rigid and uniform, both ticking to the same metronome beat of his pulse. The strength of his telekinesis kept them in an uneasy truce, a pattern of meshing together, the arm of each entwining, flesh and metal working in concert. 

Nathan exhaled with every fifth beat of his heart, steady and even, the air pushing outward to join the swirling spiral of the wind, light atoms in swift motion, dancing at the guidance of changing temperatures. The air is so very unlike the ground beneath him, which is steady and solid, the patterns sure and unyielding. Close by, the fire casts sparks into the air to be caught on the wind, lines of heat, whirls of ash. Father away are the interlocking green of the trees, drawing strength from the earth and mobility from the wind. 

He could follow the patterns forever as they wove together, jumping from line to line, crossing arcing bridges made of fire and ice, send his very conscious deep into the bowels of the earth or fling it out into the vastness of space. In this plane, connected to everything that lived, conscious of every fiery beat of the great heart of the world, Nathan could find peace. Oneness. He held onto the sensation for as long as he could, using the dome of the world as the pattern for his strongest shields, weaving the fluid pattern of water into the mobile defenses of his mind, blending the invisible patterns of air into the covers that would hide him from sight. 

When he was satisfied, Nathan opened his eyes, letting go of the peace of meditation. Wade stared back at him, nearly close enough for their noses to touch, as still as stone. 

Nathan nearly shot him.

Wade flopped backward, sniggering quietly, "Your face!"

"You are three years old," Nathan huffed, "I could have shot you." He should be used to this by now, really. Falling leaves made more noise than Wade did when he wasn't talking.

"Nah, you only shoot me on purpose, not on accident."

"Keep sneaking up on me and I _will_ shoot you on purpose as an object lesson," Nathan leaned back on his hands,stretching his legs out and giving Wade a light kick in revenge. 

Snickering, Wade rolled sideways and then back, draping himself with boneless grace across Nathan's lap. Nathan ran a hand idly along Wade's dark tunic, tugging gently on the hood. Rugged leather outside and soft fur inside, something that shed water as neatly as a plastic raincoat. Wade had discarded the combat harness at some point during his meditation. Nathan could see it by the fire, never far from Wade's reach, but far enough to signal that they were safe here, for now. 

"It's later."

"My favorite time is later," Wade purred as he buried his face in the firm curve of Nathan's stomach, arm curling around his waist, fingers creeping beneath the thick belt. He wasted no time pulling Nathan's shirt up.

"Not the later I meant," Nathan said, amused as marred lips pouted against his bared stomach. His muscles twitched away at the damp contact before he breathed out in an amused huff, his stomach pushing out ... his huff became a startled squeak as teeth scraped lightly across his skin in a playful nip. "I meant that Hope is asleep, and -- " A damp swipe of a Wade's tongue as it dipped into the depression of his belly button, languidly thrusting. "We're talking later," Nathan groaned in defeat, head tipping back against the tree with a thump.

"After this commercial break," Wade agreed with a grin, "and definitely below the line break."

"Talk to me about your line breaks _after_ you've gotten below my belt line," Nathan said indulgently as he lifted a telekinetic sound barrier between them and Hope.

  

* * *

  

"What did you get up to?" Nathan murmured lazily into the warm, uneven skin of Wade's neck.

"Wasn't up to nothin'," Wade mumbled, "Why you always gotta think I'm up to something?"

"Because you always are," Nathan nipped him in soft rebuke, "and despite your valiant efforts to distract me -- "

"What's the world coming to? A man can't even pleasure his husband without getting the third degree?" was Wade's dramatic lament.

"Your valiant and pleasing efforts," Nathan acknowledged, "but now is definitely later."

Wade groaned and rolled over, shoving his head under Nathan's chin. Nathan shifted his grip, stroking down Wade's back until he sighed with quiet pleasure, "Always wooing me with your clever fingers." 

Nathan hummed, giving the top of Wade's head a little bump with his chin. Wade sighed and gave in.

"The problem with telepaths, outside of the fact that they're nosy, controlling, egotistical _dicks_ ," Wade paused and craned his head back to squint at Nathan, as if just remembering that _Nathan_ was a telepath.

"Oh no, do go on," Nathan said dryly, lifting an eyebrow.

Wade gave him a deeply suspicious look, as if sensing this was a clever trap just waiting to be sprung on him. Nathan cupped his backside, enjoying the round fullness for a moment ... before giving it a pinch to prod Wade along. "Ow!" Wade complained, but continued, pushing back into Nathan's hands, "The problem is that they get this god complex. Like they know everything there is to know since they can sneak into your mind and read all your shit. They even think they know everything when they can't read you because they think you're just like everyone else. And hey, that's shway, because I'm totally like everyone else in the eating and sleeping and wanting sex at least every third day ... except when I'm not."

Nathan narrowed his eyes at Wade and Wade widened his eyes innocently in return. "You are not completely wrong," he acknowledged only after Wade's eyelids had begun to flutter from the effort of keeping his eyes so innocently wide.

"I know, I'm usually right. It's a curse to be this right and good looking," Wade smirked and there was nothing left for Nathan to do but to wipe that insufferable smugness right of Wade's face. Wade yelped as Nathan lunged for his throat, planting sharp little bites along the sleek column as he pinned the smaller man beneath him, "Mercy, mercy! I surrender! I shall never -- ow -- trash talk you -- ow -- again!"

Nathan stopped his assault, giving the trail of bites a soothing lick. "Good." It was a low rumble of satisfaction more than a word as he settled his weight with a languid wriggle, making Wade squirm. Nathan propped his head up on his elbow, giving Wade's ear a little flick, "Go on."

"Well anyway. I let War capture me. -- "

"Wait. _War_?!"

"I have standards, Nate. I can't just let any old wannabe ruler capture me. I'm a big name enemy. If I get captured by pussies, it'd ruin my reputation. And besides, the only good tech left is in the grubby hands of Evan and his slack jawed minions. Ergo, War. Technically he didn't capture me, his soldiers did, and they threw me in the dungeons and fed me gruel and only beat me on Wednesdays and it was great. I haven't had gruel in a long-ass time and this was quality stuff. Even the rats wouldn't eat it. Of course, it eventually gets back to War that hey, they have the goddamn _General_ as a prisoner! So he brings me up to gloat because he's a gloater."

Nathan's lips twitched, creeping their way to a smile, "I'm starting to see where this story is going."

"Villains! They're all the same," Wade agreed before launching back into his tale, "Here's War swanning around his throne room like some giant silver peacock, spreading his big spiky feathers like he's trying to seduce me with his flashy avian ways. I'm like, bro, can we get on with this, I am missing my gruel and he's like, I'll teach you respect for my station you insignificant cockroach and I'm like, that's going to take a while and I'm sure your teaching degree is plum full of ass licking rather anything that's got respect and he's like, worm, you will regret everything, suffer now your worst nightmare and I'm like, well, are you going to get on with it or what? because I haven't got all day and I've sort of got to go see my boy Nate some time this century and that's when he starts staring at me like he's just been hit by a brick. Turns out that silly silver peacock was a telepath! Like gosh, who would have thought?"

"As if you didn't already know that going in there," Nathan shook his head, hardly fooled by Wade's pretense of ignorance. 

"My mind must be some irresistible shit, I am telling you. Like, get off me, telepaths. Stop creeping. Because you all certainly aren't after me for my stunning good looks and shapely body."

"I've been in your mind. I can tell you with certainty that I want you solely for your body."

Wade blew him a kiss.

"If I were to venture a guess, this is the part where you seduced him."

"How'd you guess? Are you a telepath?" Wade asked with wide-eyed amazement and then grinned at Nathan's flat look. 

The grin faltered when Nathan's flat look didn't fade, it just grew flatter, "And also the part you didn't want to tell me."

The denial was instant, "What? No. I _never_. I tell you _all_ about my sexual conquests."

"Only the ones you actually _enjoy_." 

"That isn't true, I'm pretty sure that -- "

"Clint Barton. Steve Rogers. Diana of the Clouds. Yanina Klimova. Liu Xun," Nathan paused, needing to call to mind the others that Wade had seen fit to mention, and Wade swiftly leaped into the gap.

"Okay! Okay! I didn't want to tell you because ... "

"Because you were whoring," Nathan said tartly, not willing to let it go, "Wade."

Wade huffed in annoyance, "Whhaaaaat?"

"Stop whoring."

"Sex _and_ money are never the wrong decisions," Wade said sagely, solemn as he tried his innocent eyes on Nathan and Nathan remained unmoved.

"Wade."

"Just because _you_ don't like it ... "

"I don't like to see you demean yourself," Nathan said flatly, "and I especially don't like it when you whore for our benefit."

"Hey now, let's not assume it was for your benefit," Wade pouted, "It was for my own."

Nathan laid his arms on either side of Wade's head, penning him in as he stared him down, giving Wade fewer options to avoid his gaze.

"Okay, it was for your benefit," Wade glared, defensive, "So what? I can't get laid now just because you don't -- " 

Nathan kissed him to shut him up, a hard, open mouthed kiss that demanded and devoured, reclaiming ground that had been taken by someone else, someone who didn't appreciate it nearly as much as Nathan appreciated it. He didn't pull back until he had mapped every inch of Wade's mouth, battered that devious tongue into submission, and rendered Wade whimpering and compliant beneath him. "I don't care who you fuck," he growled, a low rumble that made Wade shudder, "I don't care if you fuck every person on this planet when I'm not there. I care about you selling yourself to people you don't _want_ to fuck just to give me or Hope something. I don't like it when you judge yourself _worth less_ than _us_ , because you're _not_."

Wade squirmed, panting and flushed and hard, pale eyes wide, the emotion in them trapped in an uncomfortable mix of discomfort and awe. The roiling knowledge that Nathan wanted _better_ for him when he didn't want better for himself. He looked away, voice rough, "I wanted to sleep with him."

"It was expedient to sleep with him."

"Two birds, one stone, okay!" Defiance crept into Wade's tone, gaining strength as he found his thread again, "If I knew where his stuff was, I'd have just stolen it. Except I didn't know. And I could have killed everyone in that fortress, but I just wasn't in the damn mood! So I played him and I sold my body to make it look good."

"Wade," Nathan adjusted his weight so he could cup Wade's face, stroking the the arch of his cheekbones with his thumbs, "Wade ... whatever you stole ... it wasn't worth it."

Wade closed his eyes, shivering under the soft touch, and when he opened them again, there was something fierce and bright there, something that gained strength from Nathan's tenderness rather than from his remonstration. "It was," despite it's softness, Wade's voice was firm. He lifted his chin, bumping their noses together. 

Nathan pulled back so Wade could actually see him lift his eyebrow.

"It was that important," Wade repeated, fierce and sure, "It was the tool you needed to fix the time distortion matrix."

Nathan's breath caught in his throat as the world seemed to stop. No. It couldn't be the right time frame already, could it? Hope wasn't grown, she wasn't _ready_ ... and _Nathan_ wasn't ready, he was never going to be _ready_ to _leave_ Wade, but he had thought there was still so much more time, at least as long as it took for Hope to be a woman instead of just a girl ... 

Wade kept talking, grounding Nathan even when he felt like everything was sliding into uncertain sand around him. "Been waiting for one for a while, haven't I? Years and years. I've just been leaving Evan alone to build his nasty little toys so I could get _this_ piece. This is the only piece of tech that matters ... because you can't go where you need to be unless you have this." 

Nathan needed to be _here_ , he needed to always being moving forward instead of back because _Wade_ needed him. "It's not _that_ important."

"It _is_ that important. You have to go back. You can't just keep going forward, Nate. If you hadn't noticed ... there's nothing here for you. There's nothing anywhere."

"There's _you_." Nathan had _promised_. He might destroy everything else he touched, but not _this_ and not Hope (because Wade was here to help him not ruin Hope). 

"So the fuck what! I hope you're not staying just because of _me_." Something in Nathan's face must have given him away because Wade was grabbing his head and holding it, searching his eyes, "Nate! You can't!"

Nathan jerked his head out of Wade's grasp as he rolled off the smaller man and sat up, feeling cold ... and even colder now without his Wade shaped heater.

Wade sat up, pushing himself angrily to his feet as he looked over at Hope, sleeping peacefully on the other side of the telekinetic sound barrier, "She has to go back. This isn't any kind of life for a little girl. She should be _home_ , in the old world. She shouldn't sleep on the ground or worry about where dinner's coming from. She should see what a _woman_ looks like instead of spending all her time with two decrepit old geezers like us." 

Nathan rose to his feet, not willing to stay sitting while Wade was pacing the confines of his barrier. "The old world, as you call it, was too dangerous to stay in. There were enemies we couldn't fight. We had to run." 

"There might have been enemies, but you had allies there. A lot more allies than you have now, I might add."

"I have _you_ , Wade. I don't need another ally."

"And how has that helped you in the long term, huh? Not fucking much. All you're doing is running. You have to turn and fight ... and the best place to fight was there. Where you were strongest."

"The farther forward we go, _you're_ the strongest," Nathan shot back, "Or have you forgotten who's won every sparring session in the last thousand years?"

"I didn't forget!" Wade snapped back, "If your quarry goes to ground, give them no ground to go to. Don't think for a _second_ they haven't figured it out by now, that you and I look exactly the same on an ichnoschronograph," It seemed like a non sequitur, one of Wade's many abrupt conversational changes, until he slapped a hand to his bare chest, "Eventually, you'll jump to me and it won't be _me_ anymore ... because they'll have found a way to _compromise_ me."

Despite Wade's admittedly reasonable paranoia, this wasn't one of the things that Nathan feared the most. He was confident both in the impervious nature of Wade's mind, which had easily repelled Nathan's invasion even when Nathan was strongest, and in the fact that no one knew Wade better than him. No false Wade could fool him for longer than a few sentences. He was also confident that no one could damage Wade in a way that his own healing and Nathan's powers couldn't fix. "It can't be done." 

"You can't possibly know that!"

"If Apocalypse hasn't managed it in two thousand years, I doubt he'll suddenly figure it out now," Nathan folded his arms, "And if he ever does, I'll be able to fix it. I know the pattern you're supposed to be, Wade, because it matches _mine_."

Wade threw his hands up in the air, "You are the most arrogant, insufferable -- "

Nathan took the three steps that separated them and put his hands on Wade's shoulders, as if to ground them both. "You're not my ally, Wade." Wade jerked and Nathan tightened his grip, "You're my _partner_. You're my best friend. You're my lover and I won't have another lover because I don't _want_ anyone else. I love you, Wade. I loved you then and I love you now. I'm not going to _leave_ you."

"Don't ... just ... don't," Wade sagged beneath his grip, tipping forward to rest his forehead on Nathan's shoulder. Nathan slid his arms around him instead, holding him close and tight, "You _have_ to go back. You can't stay because of me."

"You're not _just _my partner, Wade. You're Hope's _father_ , as much her parent as I am ... and you've loved her out of love of me."__

"The old me will love her just the same, Nate. Don't think for a second that he won't."

"But he won't remember her. All the memories you've shared with her will be gone."

"Then make new memories. He helped you change her diapers. He knows the little girl that was."

"All the memories you've shared with _me_ will be gone," it came out soft and plaintive ... more so than Nathan had meant.

Wade pushed at Nathan's shoulders, but Nathan stubbornly refused to loosen his grip. Wade huffed and squirmed, nipping at Nathan's set jaw, licking at skin rough with stubble, voice shifting into something gently teasing, "The Nathan Summers I remember didn't let little things like _sentiment_ stop him from saving the world. Remember him? The _ruthless_ one. He was pretty hot. And completely exasperating, let's not forget that."

Nathan snorted and loosened his grip, letting Wade pull his head down for a soft, seeking kiss, "The Nathan Summers you remember got older and tired and _hunted_ , Wade. I'm too old to be trying out the younger model. Remember him? He was exhausting."

Wade blew air between his lips in a piffing sound, "Younger me is still older than you, you spring chicken. He's practically cradle robbing. Taking complete advantage of your youth. You're _my_ trophy wife in this story, I'll have you know."

"If I change the past, _you_ 'll be gone. Erased."

"I _choose_ to be erased," Wade smiled, soft and serene, "Let yourself grow older in a better world, Nate. Let Hope. Let _me_. It's been a long two thousand years ... and except for you and Hope, it's not been worth living. I'm sending you back to get me some TV. And some junk food. And hot and cold running damsels."

Nathan felt like his laugh might choke him as he rested his cheek on top of Wade's head, scar patterned hands stroked the lines of tension in his shoulders, "I'm not that sort of Cable service."

"You absolutely are."

"She could grow older here with us." Nathan shut his eyes, already knowing that he would go back. It wasn't fair to condemn the future Wade to two thousand years of desolation when he could _fix_ it.

"Not everyone has your iron will, Nate, capable of leaping time distortions in a single bound," despite the words, Wade's voice was warm with admiration before it grew serious, "She might not have that will. Why should she save the old world when she's never _lived_ in it? When it's not _her_ world? She has to have something _worth_ saving. A place, a people, _something_. She can't get that here, with only us. She needs to go _home_."

" _We're_ her home."

"Then it doesn't matter when or where we are, does it? As long as we're with her," Wade voice went soft again, " ... and I'll _always_ be with you. You know that, right? No matter what. You had me at hello."

Nathan sighed and opened his eyes, pressing a kiss to the side of Wade's head in quiet acceptance, "Your zipper's down."

Wade grinned, "That's not going to work when I'm naked."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One guess as to who the silver peacock is.
> 
> ...
> 
> Why was this chapter so hard to finish? I don't care how rough the transitions are, I am done fiddling with it!


	4. Leaves on the Wind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All travelers eventually come home again. Even time travelers.

"Back already, Nate?" Wade caroled cheerfully, "I have to tell you, walking on snow is a lot harder than those fruity elves make it seem."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out. I'm told there's a trick to it," Nathan said, and if his smile was sad, it was from the memory of things lost to time, "Something about being a leaf on the wind."

"Watch how I soar," Wade chirped as he spun around from where he had been kicking the snow drifts, only to freeze in place at the sight of them, "Hope?" he breathed, frozen as he stared at the girl who was no longer a baby. 

Hope hesitated until Nathan gave her a gentle push, crossing the distance to hover in front of Wade, uncertain. Wade stared back at her with equal uncertainty before he dropped into a crouch to be on her eye level and spoke to break the uneasy silence, "Hey there ... I used to change your diapers. You've gotten reaaaaaallly tall since then."

Hope made a face at him, "And you've gotten weirder clothes. What's the mask for?" she returned, with all the fashion forwardness that a future Wade had managed to instill in her female soul.

Wade's wince was visible even through his mask, "If everyone saw my striking good looks they'd instantly fall in love with me. Obviously, I can't make Nate jealous. He gets tetchy when he's jealous." 

"I'm immune," Hope declared imperiously, "You gave me the cootie shot when I was three."

"And the booster shots?" Wade asked.

"All of the shots."

"Damn, future me was thorough," Wade grumbled, so clearly uneasy that it made Nathan's heart hurt. He had forgotten about this, that there was a time when Wade hated to be seen. 

"Future you didn't wear a mask. Or spandex," Nathan interjected smoothly, making his own careful approach, reaching out to touch what had previously only been memory, running a hand along the line of Wade's shoulder as he stepped behind him, the smooth satiny texture of spandex gliding beneath his fingers. "I have to say, I've missed the spandex. One doesn't quite appreciate it until it's gone."

Wade shifted beneath his hand, pressing into the touch. "Why you dirty old man," he said wonderingly, "are you seriously scoping out my smoking hot bod?"

"I approve of the suit," Nathan hooked his fingers under the back of the mask and pulling gently, heavily hinting he wanted it gone. "All your clothes should be as tight as this. Unless you plan to be naked. I'm fine with that too."

"I'm right here," Hope scrunched up her nose to make a face at them before tugging on Wade's suit, yanking on the flexible material as her expression turned to puzzlement, "You can't hide a knife in this."

"This is obviously your child," Nathan said dryly, "Behold her fashion expertise."

Wade laughed, "She's learned everything I have to teach her!"

Hope gave him a sidelong look of cunning, "Does this mean I won't have any more lessons?"

"What? Nate made you _learn_ things? It was not a childhood of fun and frolic? Gasp!"

" _You_ made her learn things," Nathan said repressively. He was the fun parent, thank you very much. "You were up to iron in the periodic table of elements."

"Sounds like you have a long way yet to go then, kiddo!" Wade said cheerfully, even if the note of wonder and disbelief in his voice was unmistakable. "I've got so much left to teach you!"

Hope gave a groan of utmost despair, "I thought with a new Wade I wouldn't have any lessons. You've lied to me, Nate. You've fed me false promises!"

"He's good at that. He promised I'd be paid in sexual favors, but what am I getting? Children!" Wade said, pretending to be aggrieved.

"I paid you with sexual favors _and_ children."

"Can I give the children back?"

"No returns," Hope said tartly.

"Yes, this is obviously my child. Or your child," Wade drawled out slowly, "With this level of smart assery, it's difficult to tell exactly from whose loins she sprang."

"She's not technically ours. We stole her."

" _You_ stole her. Did you learn child napping from the Askani? They should have told you the five fingered discount does not apply to kids ... and nothing good ever comes of it."

"It's too late to take the moral high ground. You're now an accessory after the fact."

"Stop dragging me into your law breaking, Nathan Dayspring Askani'son Summers! I'm a innocent and nubile bystander to your villainy," Wade leaned in to confide to Hope, "This is how Nate and I have gotten labeled as terrorists."

Hope sniffed, "You've always been a terrorist."

"Tsundere like a cactus, this girl," Wade said with a laugh. Hope's breath caught and she threw her arms around Wade's neck, bursting into tears. Wade gave Nathan a helpless look as he automatically hugged Hope, patting her back, "H-hey now, no crying. You'll make your face all puffy, pretty girl. Then how will you impress the boys?"

"You're the same," she sobbed into his neck, "Even with your s-stupid mask and s-stupid clothes, you're the same!"

Nathan gave up on standing guard and crouched down to join them, pressing himself against Wade's back to hug them both, resting a broad hand gently on Hope's back as she cried.

"Of course I'm the same! You've barely been gone!" Wade protested, pushing back against Nathan and if it wasn't for Nathan's telekinesis, he would have knocked their precarious hug right over. "Only a couple of years on your end and only a couple of minutes on mine, so that's barely even a mini series!" Hope snuffled against Wade's neck and Wade lifted a gloved hand to stroke her hair, a motion soothing and familiar to all of them. " ... aren't I?"

"You're exactly as you should be," Nathan murmured, leaning his head against Wade's, hugging them tighter, "It's just ... good to be _home_."


End file.
